By Hayden Kennedy
On Friday night, the ninth-ranked Kentucky Wildcats faced off against the Jackson State Tigers, winning by an impressive 49 points with a final score of 108-59 to improve to 5-0 on the season.
Kentucky Shares The Ball
Coming off last Tuesday’s win over Lipscomb, UK coach Mark Pope stated there was not enough ball movement, referencing only 10 assists being made that game. Kentucky made it a point to share the ball, as the Cats finished the game against the Tigers with 29 total assists, led by Kerr Kriisa with seven, Brandon Garrison with six, and Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr with five each.
Otega Oweh Continues To Shine
The 6-foot-4 guard has continued to be the most consistent player on the team. He gunned in 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting, including three steals on the defensive end. Now averaging 16.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and two steals per game, Oweh is making a serious case for being the team's best player overall.
“It's interesting with Otega, right? What is really great about Otega?" said Pope. "He's 8 for 12. He's 4 for 4 from the free-throw line. He's got 21 points, two assists, zero turnovers, three steals and ends up with 21 points on the night and we don't get to him until the very end of the press conference.
"When he kind of does that every single night, he gets us of to unbelievable starts every single night. He's got physicality and a joy about him. I think he's been incredible. I'm really proud of him, you know, one of the things that all of us are working on growing and one of the things that he has been focusing on growing is being a every day, every play guy. Man, he's probably been our most consistent guy in games. And that is a massive tribute to him. And Coach (Mark) Fox works with him a lot. I'm just really proud of him and he's just bringing joy to every single game.
"The only time I got mad at Otega today was when he was celebrating with his guys too much after a play and not running transition defense. He's really special. I have to stop talking about him because he started to get a big head back here, you know what I'm saying?”
Koby Brea’s Hot Streak Continues
Koby Brea shot an astounding 49 percent from the three-point line last year at Dayton, and that trend seems to continue this year. Brea ended the night with 18 points, shooting 5 of 8 from the three-point line.
When asked about Brea’s performance, Pope said, “I thought he was really good, I thought he was terrific. And then one of my many favorite moments tonight. He banged a three right in the corner in front of me and turned around and started talking trash to me. Which that was awesome. I love that. I mean, Koby is in a tough spot. He goes five from eight from the three-point line and it's destroying his shooting percentage, which is just crazy and I've never seen that in my lifetime. He's sure is doing special things for us, like all of our guys are right now.”
Kentucky will play the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. ET at Rupp Arena. The game will be seen on ESPNU.
Hayden Kennedy, a recent UK graduate, is a contributing writer from Lexington.
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